


Flying the Friendly Skies

by Hyvamethyst



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Pilots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 20:44:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyvamethyst/pseuds/Hyvamethyst
Summary: As first officer, Astrid dreamed of being an airline captain. So when she was passed up for promotion, she was pissed. When she was paired up with the new, baby-faced captain, she was livid. And what the Hel was up with his name? All she needed was an inflight emergency, and this would be the worst day of her career.





	1. Fly-by-wire

**Author's Note:**

> A short, two-part fic about Hiccup and Astrid as airline pilots. The concept stuck with me, and I didn't find anybody else doing one, so I went ahead and wrote something.

Tap, tap, tap.

Clean, trimmed nails struck a steady beat against the handle of her luggage as Astrid sat stiffly on the sofa in the airline crew room, a scowl marring her features. She checked her watch for the tenth time in probably as many minutes. Where the Hel was that new captain who would be flying with her today?

There were a few cabin crew milling about the kitchenette, but she paid them no mind. Earlier, one of them had greeted her and attempted to strike up a conversation, but dismissed it as a lost cause after her curt answers. They've kept their distance ever since.

It was hardly the way to make a good first impression, and she might be flying with some of them again in the future, but she couldn't help it. She had imagined this whole scenario so differently: striding through the door proudly, four golden stripes shining atop each shoulder epaulet, and being greeted as _Captain_ Hofferson.

Astrid had been a hair's breadth away from being the first female captain in Berk Airways. Or at least that was what the pilots' rumor mill was saying. Astrid was never one to give gossip too much credit, but it was hard to not get her hopes up. Her record was flawless, and she had the hours—why wouldn't she be?

Instead, all the "promotion" she got was a transfer to training for the newly delivered Airbus A320 jets. It's meant to be exciting, being given first go at a brand new, state-of-the-art aircraft. She supposed it was intended as a compliment, a reward. Didn't feel like one though.

They were a far cry from the old Boeing 737-400s she had flown for virtually the entirety of her career. Astrid had easily earned her type rating for the new plane, but her extensive experience would mean little on an unfamiliar flight deck. There were already old habits she had to unlearn. All of a sudden, her dream of captaincy had spiraled back down to square one.

Her hand clenched at the memory of when she'd been informed. Management had tried to sell it to her as a recognition of her talent. Her past performance and adaptability were unrivaled, they said, making her the natural choice to pilot the newest and best in the fleet. It didn't sound very convincing. Or genuine, for that matter.

The company, and the industry at large, had always been male dominated, and the push for increased diversity hadn't necessarily gone down well. It was good PR for certain, but she suspected the recent hiring of several female pilots didn't sit well with a few bigwigs up top, and her promotion to captain would have pushed it over the edge. Gods knew Scott had been whining since the very beginning when the rumors started.

Scott. The chauvinistic oaf shouldn't even be flying, but apparently different rules applied when you were the son of a company executive. If he got to sit in the left seat before her, she was resigning.

And, as the final insult, there was mounting derision among Berk pilots at those who transitioned to the A320. Thanks to fly-by-wire controls and automated systems, the Airbus' handled better, not to mention needed less input from the pilot. Astrid herself found them a delight to fly, but there were already murmurs that only the greener airmen were chosen. On a 737, you _fly_ the plane, they claimed. On an A320, you just sit there and tell it what to do.

Tap, tap, ta—

"Um, hi, are you Astrid Hofferson?" A mildly nasal voice brought Astrid out of her musings.

Looking up, she met the gaze of a man in a somewhat rumpled pilot's uniform, with his blazer draped over one arm. And then her eyes zeroed in on his shoulder epaulets, where four golden stripes almost glowed against the black fabric. No, there was no way…

"I'm Hiccup," he said cheerfully, extending his free hand. "We'll be flying together today. It's nice to meet you!"

_This_ was the captain? _Him?_ He looked the same age as her! If anything, the boyish smile he had gave her the impression he was even younger.

Said smile wavered when the seconds ticked by and Astrid had yet to respond. Shaking herself out of the initial disbelief, she eyed him skeptically and blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "That's not a real name."

Well. So much for good first impressions.

To his credit, Hiccup, or so he claimed, didn't appear offended. Instead, he reached up and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, uh, it's actually Holden," he chuckled. There was a hint of embarrassment. "But my friends all call me Hiccup."

Standing, Astrid smoothed down her shirt and summoned the same shining, friendly smile she greeted passengers with. Seething in private was one thing, but professionalism came first. "Sorry, I can be a bit tactless this early in the morning. First Officer Astrid Hofferson, pleasure to meet you."

For a moment, Hiccup, or _Holden_ , rather, seemed somewhat dazed, and Astrid's smile deepened ever so slightly.

* * *

The morning light scattered as the sun peeked through the gaps in the cockpit's sun shades, leaving little bright spots on top of the tray table. Astrid pushed her sunglasses up, and shifted in her seat, trying to keep the light out of her eyes. This time of year and this far up north, the sun always appeared to be directly in front of you. Other than that, the weather was perfect for flying. No clouds, and only a light breeze.

Finishing her inspection of the instrument panels, Astrid pulled out the airport maps to review their approach again as she waited for Hiccup to return from his preflight walk-around. The nickname had stuck with her, surprisingly, and she had given up on correcting herself by the fifth time. It fit, somehow.

But he was still entirely an enigma to her. Astrid had been with Berk Airways for years, and never once did she hear of a captain this young among their ranks. Surely, if he had always been with them, someone would have mentioned him, especially with the distinctive way he introduced himself.

A new hire, perhaps? If so, what did he do previously that earned him the captaincy? She would never let it affect her work, but the apparent injustice gnawed at her. They had spent the time since the briefing in a stretched, awkward silence, both of them seeming to have questions they were holding back.

"Hey, uh, do you want to fly the leg down while it's still daytime?"

Astrid jumped a little; she hadn't heard him come back in. Looking across at him as he settled into the left-hand seat, she nodded.

"Sure."

They worked through the rest of the preflight procedure quickly. He definitely knew his stuff, that was certain, his gaze moving to the next item on the checklist before she had finished reading it out.

After all was said and done, out of habit, Astrid reached down for the console to select the PA system. In the past, at least one announcement to passengers was by her; marketing thought it would improve their image, making it known that they had women pilots. Astrid was all for it. After all, maybe her voice over the intercom could reassure a young girl they could become a pilot someday, too. Today's passengers would most likely be holiday-goers, heading south to enjoy the beach and the summer sun.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your first officer, Astrid, and with me on the flight deck today is Captain Hic—" Astrid's eyes widened at her slipup, but she pressed on, "Captain Holden."

"We're delighted to have you on board, and weather's looking good on both ends, so we'll have everyone back on the ground in about five hours. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight as well as the service of our wonderful cabin crew."

Mortified, she glanced to over at Hiccup, ready to apologize, only to see him trying his best not to laugh. Not that he was succeeding. Once he managed to collect himself, he quipped at her, voice full of mirth, "And that's why I'm usually the one making the preflight announcements."

Astrid could only shake her head in response, fighting a smile of her own.

Traffic was sparse this morning, and the tower cleared them for pushback and taxiing right on schedule. Before long, they were lining up on runway 31L for takeoff.

Berk policy was that both pilots push the throttles together on takeoff, and Astrid waited for Hiccup's hand to join hers. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw him hesitate, just for a moment. When he finally did, she could feel that his hand was warm, and slightly clammy. Paying it no mind, she pushed forward until it reached the takeoff thrust detent.

"FLEX set."

She always enjoyed the feeling of the plane accelerating down the runway for takeoff. The slight push back into the seat, the vibrations from the tarmac surface below, and the roar of the engines. They sounded quieter in the Airbus, though.

Beside her, Hiccup called out eighty knots on the airspeed indicator.

"Eighty knots," she confirmed.

"V one, rotate," called Hiccup after a few moments, and she pulled back on the sidestick, easing the nose up and watching as the ground sank below the edge of the windshield.

"Positive rate, gear up."

The climb out was uneventful. With the autopilot set and the after-takeoff checklist complete, Astrid could relax a little. One of the best things about flying was the view, and no matter how many times she took off out of this same airport, she'd always appreciate the way her hometown looked from up above.

To her right, a handful of skyscrapers towered over the landscape, glass facades gleaming in the morning sun. The city skyline was backed by a line of mountains, adorned with snowcapped peaks all year round. When the plane banked, the view shifted to winding roads bordered by trees, rooftops poking out amidst the green, and the occasional solar panel reflecting the sunlight up at her.

"You know, you should loosen your grip on the stick."

The sound of Hiccup's voice surprised her. It was different from before—the faint nervous edge was gone. In fact, it was vaguely reminiscent of the way her instructor sounded all those years ago.

"What?"

"You were holding onto it too tightly." He pointed over to her sidestick as he spoke. "It's easy to overcontrol like that. The stick is pretty sensitive, you can move it with just a finger. Remember, you're controlling the pitch and roll rate, not the actual surfaces like before."

Astrid blinked before giving a brief nod, and they lapsed back into silence once more.

* * *

"And when I turned around, there Toothless was, clinging to the strut, and glaring down at me!"

Astrid couldn't help herself. As Hiccup finished his story, she felt a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

For the past half hour, he had been regaling her with the exploits of his cat that he had inexplicably named Toothless, despite one of the stories involving the precious feline chewing up his flight charts. The latest was how he discovered Toothless in the wing of the ultralight he was flying only after they had taken off.

Clearly pleased by the reaction, Hiccup flashed a lopsided grin at her. "So, have I finally broken down those walls of ice, milady?"

At that, her smile faded. Had her irritation been that obvious? "I don't know what you mean," she said lightly.

"Come on, you've said less than a dozen words to me since we met." He paused, as if afraid he just undid all the progress up till now. "Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still."

Sighing, she bit her lip and wondered if she should tell him, and how much. Over the previous several hours, she had figured he was a genuinely likeable person with an earnest passion for flying. Very competent and at home in the cockpit, too. In the end, she decided to throw caution to the winds.

"It's just… This isn't where I saw myself a few months ago."

"You were hoping for captaincy, right?" He asked carefully.

"Mhm," Astrid nodded affirmative. "I guess you heard the rumors, too. But no, I get shunted to this. Not that I don't appreciate flying a new plane," she added quickly, "But gods forbid Scott get his stripes before me."

"You mean Snotlout?"

Astrid snorted, "What?"

"That's what I used to call him when we were little. He's my cousin." The cheeky grin on his face told her this was something he was more than happy to share with others.

She was about to comment on that when something else hit her. Scott's father was the airline CEO's brother. It was why he had such an attitude, strutting around like he owned the place. If Hiccup was his cousin, then did that make him…? Her eyes flicked up. His hair. That same shade of auburn. Astrid could feel the anger flaring up in her again. Was this how he became captain?

It must have shown, because Hiccup's face fell. "Yeah, I'm Holden Haddock. Stanton Haddock is my father."

Under Astrid's piercing glare, he raised his hands defensively. "Hey, it's not something I like to advertise. And I didn't get this job because of him."

"Then how _did_ you get it?" Her tone was icy, all the previous goodwill evaporating.

"I wanted to fly since I was little. I remember Dad taking me up as a kid, and he taught me to fly in this little Piper before I could even drive." Despite the nostalgia in his voice, a frown appeared on Hiccup's face, and he gazed out the windshield.

"But he always wanted me to take over from him. Manage the airline, not fly for it. We had a lot of fights, but eventually we made a deal: if I could make captain at a major airline before he retired, I could choose what I wanted to do."

Looking back to her, he continued, a bit more upbeat than before, "I flew cargo for a while, and then I had a lucky break. I was recruited by SAS, and I've been flying with them ever since. Dad convinced me to come back recently, what with the new orders, since I've been flying them all along."

"Whatever you may think, Dad's not the type to go easy just because I'm his son," he appealed to her earnestly, obviously hoping it would somewhat mollify her. "Out of all the pilots we have, I've got the most experience on the A320, and I've got the hours to qualify for captain."

By this point, Astrid was already looking down at her hands in her lap and picking at a nail. She had misjudged, and assumed the worst of him. Suddenly the cockpit was feeling very cramped.

"And rest assured, this isn't a punishment," Hiccup continued in that same determined air. "I had a hand in picking everyone for the first round of transition, and I'll be honest, I did suggest you specifically. They—"

"Hold on!" Astrid interrupted, " _You're_ the reason for all this?"

Hiccup paled, stumbling over his words, "Wait, no, okay, just let me ask you this first! Why do you want to be captain?"

The unexpected question stopped her oncoming outburst before it even began. What kind of question was that? He might as well have asked why she breathed. But then again, when she tried to answer, her mind drew a blank.

"Okay, how about this. Why did you become a pilot?"

"Because I love flying." To Astrid, it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you're still doing that as a first officer! Plus you're experiencing something new." Hiccup gestured around them, waving a hand at the LCD instrument panels.

"Does being the captain change anything about how much you love doing this? Sure, the seniority and higher pay grade has its perks, but trust me, your promotion will come in no time. They weren't lying when they said this was because you were adaptable. I had a feeling you'd learn to fly this bird faster than anyone else, probably even me. And you'll be one of the few pilots we have that has hours on both jets. Everyone will be wanting to fly with you. Besides, in the meantime, you're still senior first officer."

Well when put like that, it was definitely more heartening.

Her pursuit of captaincy had largely been to prove that she could do it. Like with other pilots, it was a "just because" thing. Being able to say she captained an airliner would be a privilege. Maybe she had been looking at this transition the wrong way: instead of artificial barriers, it was a testament to her airmanship.

"You know," Hiccup started again, and this time the embarrassment was back, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "I was actually kinda nervous about flying with you."

The disbelief on Astrid's face at that statement made him chuckle. "I'm serious, you have quite a reputation. I hear you've corrected captains on their mistakes before, and someone like me, who hasn't had his line check in ages? I was a bit worried."

Smirking, Astrid gladly took the bait, "Well then you better watch out, because I'm gunning for your job, Hiccup!"

He gasped dramatically, holding his chest and twisting his features into one of fear, and the two of them laughed before settling into a new, comfortable silence.


	2. Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure

"Hey, look at this," Hiccup said out of the blue, just over halfway into the flight. For a moment, Astrid thought she might have missed a caution message on the flight computer. Looking closer, she saw he was examining the little TCAS symbol on the navigation display.

There was another aircraft gaining on them from directly behind. At 39,000 feet, the mystery plane was cruising 1,000 feet above them, and a good Mach .03 faster.

"Who do you think it is?"

"He's catching up pretty quickly, you can see for yourself in a little bit."

Astrid wrinkled her nose and raised an eyebrow teasingly. "'He'?"

She watched closely as Hiccup blanched, a horrified expression slowly donning his face. "Wait, no, I didn't mean to imply— I just assumed—" He took a breath and sighed, eyes shut, "I'm just going to stop talking now."

Her restraint vanishing, Astrid leaned back and broke into a fit of laughter. It was almost like bantering between close friends. Hiccup himself seemed glad to see her fully at ease as well, taking the jest in stride. It was nice, and she had to admit, she could get used to his company, and his stories.

For all the hostility she had aimed at him earlier, she couldn't fault him for everything that happened. Actually, maybe she could blame him a little for the delayed promotion. Just a little. Still, she had come to appreciate his presence, and his expertise. He knew the A320 inside out, and happily shared whatever tips and insights he had gained with her. He would probably be a great instructor one day.

A few minutes later, a truly enormous silhouette appeared in Astrid's field of view.

The plane behind had overtaken them, revealing itself to be a huge, four-engine behemoth. While Astrid certainly knew about them, this was her first time seeing an A380 in the air, soaring easily across the skies. Her usual routes were entirely in the north, and no airline flew them that far up. She leaned forward, looking up through the windows to get a better look.

It was amazing something so big could fly so seemingly effortlessly. On the ground, the A380 was hulking, lumbering. She had once heard someone compare them to a pregnant whale, and it was definitely an apt analogy. But once in flight, there was a kind of majestic grace to it.

Hiccup must have read her mind, "Want to take a few photos? Here, you can use my camera," he said, grabbing a Nikon from his bag behind the seat and handing it to her.

Astrid unbuckled her shoulder harnesses, and leaned forward against the top of the instrument panel glareshield, angling the camera lens upwards to get a good shot. The plane in front filled up the entire viewfinder, a dark shape against the blue sky.

Without warning, their plane rolled to the left, hard.

Astrid's head banged against the cockpit window to her right, and she felt her insides squeeze up against her diaphragm as the aircraft dropped, her seatbelt the only thing keeping her down. Moments later, she was slammed back into her seat in a daze and held there, as if by a massive, invisible hand. Hiccup's camera clattered to the floor. An alarm chimed, warning that the autopilot had disengaged.

On instinct, Astrid grabbed the sidestick and jerked it hard to the right.

"No, wait! You'll make it worse!"

No sooner had Hiccup finished, the aircraft lurched again, and banked rapidly to the right, even more steeply than before. This time, the bank angle warning triggered. The nose dived down, too, and through the windshield, all she could see was the white tops of the clouds beneath.

The sudden movement was disorienting, and if it weren't for the attitude indicator, she would have no idea where the plane was pointed. In an instant of fearful panic, she thought they were going to tumble out of the sky. All of a sudden, the cloud layer looked awfully close, and she wondered just how much sky was left between them and the ground.

"My aircraft!" Hiccup barked, and Astrid's hand jumped away from the controls. Despite her stunned state, the urgency and harshness in his voice shocked her into immediately obeying, letting him spring into action and take over.

Even as the jet continued to buck and bump beneath them, Hiccup smoothly guided the wings level and brought the nose back up, changing heading to give the A380 above wide birth. The cause of their distress was still continuing along placidly, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Seconds later, they were climbing back to their original cruise altitude.

The buffeting faded, but Astrid's heart was still hammering a staccato against her ribcage. "What the fuck was that?" she eventually managed to gasp.

"Wake turbulence." Hiccup's voice was even, steady; a stark contrast to hers. "Are you okay?"

Buckling her shoulder straps back on, Astrid pressed the heel of her palm against her head where she had hit the window. There'd be a heck of a lump later, but it wasn't bleeding, and the throbbing was diminishing. "Yeah, I think I'll be fine."

"Good. Get on the intercom, find out what's going on in the cabin."

The response came quickly, and the news wasn't good. Flight attendants had been in the middle of cabin service when the turbulence hit. In all, seven injured, three seriously, with bleeding from the head, and possibly a neck fracture. Astrid could hear crying in the background as she talked to the crewmember who answered.

Relaying the information to Hiccup, she saw his mouth press into a thin line. "Declare an emergency, have control find us the nearest airport that can take them."

In all her years flying, she had never declared a mayday before. Incidents happened, but they were never serious enough to warrant emergency priority.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Berkian 547." She swallowed, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "We hit heavy turbulence, multiple serious injuries onboard, requesting directions to closest airport with medevac."

As air traffic control gave them a new heading, Astrid recalled the time she had an engine surge and start to spit flames. The vibrations shook the entire aircraft, and it felt as if the whole thing was going to tear apart along the rivets lines. Petrified passengers also witnessed the streaks of fire shooting out of the engine before she shut it down.

In comparison, their current situation was tame; the plane was fine, and everything was under control.

But the suddenness with which she had lost that control weighed on her. The entire ordeal lasted less than a minute, and she couldn't bear to imagine what the result would have been had Hiccup not been there. If she was the captain instead.

Equally disturbing was Hiccup's warning. Had she really worsened their crisis? Oh gods, what if someone was paralyzed for the rest of their life because of her?

"I—" Her voice caught in her throat. She felt faintly sick. "I've had first-aid training," Astrid eventually stammered out, catching Hiccup's attention. "Should I go see if I can help?"

Shaking his head, Hiccup replied with a firm no. "Let the cabin crew handle it. I need you here monitoring and on the radio. Get the charts out, go over our approach for me."

Her hands trembled slightly when she pulled out her tray table and unfolded the charts on it. Hiccup evidently noticed; when he next spoke, his voice was gentler.

"Hey, take a deep breath and pause for a moment. It's over now, we're okay. It's just like flying to any other airport for the first time." Peering over at her, he added, "Remember the scan technique? Front-to-side."

Right. Visual scanning. They were going to make an impromptu fast approach, separation was important. Start at the center of the windshield, move to the right, pause on each section. Swing back and repeat for the left. Instrument panel next. Rinse and repeat.

For the next hour, the only sound in the cockpit was the drone of the engines. As they neared the airport, the workload picked up dramatically. Astrid kept in touch with the tower controller, went through checklists, and helped configure the plane for landing.

Before she knew it, Hiccup had lined them up for final approach, and the robotic synthesized voice of the flight computer was calling out their altitude.

When Hiccup gently touched the rear landing gear onto the runway and eased the A320 onto the ground, Astrid idly noted that it was the smoothest landing she'd ever experienced. She could probably hold a full mug of coffee and not spill a single drop throughout.

Turning off the runway, they stopped on a nearby taxiway, where air stairs and ambulances were waiting. Once the engines were shut down, Astrid gave them the all-clear, and watched as they sped towards the cabin door, out of sight.

She chewed on her lower lip, wondering if the passengers were going to be all right. Briefly, a little part of her worried how this was going to look on her records, and the guilt of even remotely caring about that at a time like this piled on, too.

* * *

"No, Dad, the passengers and the crew are fine." A brief pause. "The plane's fine, too, I think. Everyone's fine. And I'm fine as well, by the way, thanks for asking!"

Astrid was finding it increasingly hard to smother her laughter the longer Hiccup's call went on.

"Okay. Yes, I know." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. No, I won't. Okay. _Okay_." His free hand was thrown up into the air in exasperation.

From what she had seen, Hiccup could get rather animated when agitated. At the moment, he was pacing circles around the couch Astrid was sitting on. She followed him with her eyes whenever he appeared back into her line of sight, but honestly, it was starting to get a bit dizzying.

After a few more similar exchanges and an equally terse goodbye, Hiccup finally discarded his phone on the table. Flopping down beside Astrid, he breathed out a long, world-weary sigh, eyes closed and rubbing his temple. If this was what every conversation with Stanton Haddock was like, she was beginning to understand why he ran off to fly with an airline on the other side of the world.

"Everything okay?" Astrid couldn't contain herself, a cheeky smile pulling at her lips.

Hiccup's eyes flashed open, and he sent her his best attempt at a withering glare. It only served to make her smile a full-blown grin.

The two of them were in the airport pilot lounge. Their plane was grounded until maintenance could inspect it for potential damage, and both they and the passengers needed to be ferried out by another flight coming to pick them up.

"I'm sorry about your camera."

The rollercoaster motions of the plane during the flight had cracked the lens. Astrid didn't know much about cameras, but it definitely looked expensive.

Hiccup merely waved her off, "Wasn't your fault." His eyes were closed again, as if about to take a nap, leaving Astrid to her own devices.

Earlier, she had heard more about what happened in the cabin from a flight attendant. Wine bottles from the catering cart had been sent flying, some shattering on impact, flinging glass shards at those seated nearby. A passenger on his way to the lavatory was hurled into the cabin roof before crashing back to the floor. Those made up the worst of the injuries, the rest being mostly scrapes and bruises.

Thankfully, the paramedics who responded assured them that none of the injuries were life-threatening. It was a major relief to Astrid, and it felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest.

But something else still haunted her. The sound of Hiccup shouting "You'll make it worse!" reverberated in her head, and it was all she could think about now. Ever since they'd been left in private, she had wanted to ask him about it, to know if that's really what happened.

She tugged loosely at her braid, fingers playing with the loose strands of hair at the end. As much as she feared the answer, she was never one to shy away from reality. That didn't mean she couldn't be a tad apprehensive about finding out, though.

Eying him, she saw he had his elbow on the arm of the couch, propping his head up with his left hand. He didn't look asleep, only resting. Maybe now was the time. Get it out, be direct, straight to the point.

She took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

"Did I really make things worse?"

The sudden question startled Hiccup, and he jerked upright, eyebrows pulling together as he frowned a little. Weighing his words, he didn't answer until several seconds later. It was excruciating, waiting for the hammer to drop.

"Compensating that hard can make it worse."

"But," he added quickly, "It's not your fault. It's a natural reaction, and simulator training didn't cover this sort of thing. Unless you've come across it before, you wouldn't have known."

Shaking his head, he went on, "It was scary for me as well. And if we're going to assign blame, then this is as much my fault for not realizing wake turbulence could still be an issue at that kind of distance.

"But that's when we really earn our stripes though, isn't it? When the unexpected happens, and it's up to us to make the right call." There was a kind of resolve in his tone, entirely different from the lighthearted humor she had come to expect from him. "And now you have the experience to know how to respond in the future. Or better, avoid it entirely. If anything, you're a better pilot now than you were this morning."

It was in that instant that Astrid realized no, she wasn't ready for the captaincy.

As proficient as she was on the flight deck, thus far everything she had done was by the book. This was her first time being thrown into unforeseen danger, and she had let panic take over, instinct overriding judgement.

Levelheaded, calm, and composed, even in the worst of times. That's what made a good pilot. There was a lot she hadn't seen yet, a lot more to learn.

In a sudden bout of gratitude, Astrid reached around Hiccup's shoulders, drawing him close and giving him a hug. She caught a flash of his shocked expression, and felt his body tense under her arms. Astrid gave a soft squeeze and pulled back, placing a light peck on his cheek along the way. Hiccup sat there stiff as a board, his face growing steadily redder.

"Thanks. For, well, everything, I guess," she said quietly, chuckling a little at his response.

Hiccup coughed and cleared his throat a few times before he could formulate any words. When he did, it was distinctly higher pitched than usual. "No problem," he squeaked out.

"You know," Hiccup started, after regaining full control of his vocal chords, "There is something I could 'abuse'" —he made air quotes with his fingers—"my status for."

Seeing her querying and expectant gaze, he pressed on, the nervous demeanor back again, "I could have us paired together on more flights. Only if you want to, of course!" He added the last part hurriedly.

When Astrid didn't say anything immediately, he looked away and started rambling, gesturing wildly at nothing in particular throughout, "No, of course you wouldn't. Why would you? That was a terrible flight, it could be a bad omen. I mean, it's probably Toothless's fault, he's blacker than squid ink pasta—"

"Hiccup," Astrid cut him off, silencing him instantly. "I'd love to fly with you again."

The giddy look that donned his features made her smile, too. For good measure though, she gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "But only if I get to hear more about Toothless."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much everybody for reading! And I hope I haven't given anyone a fear of flying...
> 
> So yes, I've taken a few creative liberties. Pilot promotions don't work like that, for example, and a lot of procedures have been skipped. Also, if you want to read more about the wake turbulence of an A380, search for "Emirates A388 over Arabian Sea on Jan 7th 2017, wake turbulence sends business jet in uncontrolled descent" on The Aviation Herald. That was the incident that gave me the idea for a reasonably realistic scenario to use for this fic.
> 
> Finally, thanks to the great friend who beta'd this for me, and for reminding me how normal human beings talk in real life.


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